Canzano: Monday Night Football's Hail Mary misfire should mark an end to the replacements... and better yet, the whining

Monday night's Hail Mary circus in
Seattle should end the lockout of the league's officials. If there's any mercy,
if there's any justice, if there's any point in taking the league seriously
again, the regular officials will be back to work as soon as this sentence
ends.

Even so, the worst part of having a
month of replacement officials wasn't a blown call on a key play --- those have
been around forever --- but rather, the whining coming from the coaches for the
last month.

It's true that the NFL product isn't as good with second-tier officials calling
the action. Even the NFL knows it or why else are they even bothering to
negotiate with the officials?

Calls are being missed, the
replacements are shaky on procedure, and the flow of the games has been
interrupted. We knew long before Seattle stole a game on Monday that we'd all
be better off with a resolution in this labor disagreement. But the biggest
embarrassment isn't that some well-intentioned officials are stumbling through
their workday but that the coaches are spending so much time distracted with
it.

New England coach Bill Belichick chased down an official after Sunday's loss,
grabbing at his arm. He'll be fined substantially. The NFL already fined Denver
coach John Fox $30,000 and docked defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $25,000
for their outbursts during last Monday's loss to Atlanta.

It was so bad,
according to ESPN, that the league reportedly called the Georgia Dome at
halftime to tell Fox and Del Rio to tone down the outbursts.
The NFL is now looking at Belichick's behavior, and also, Baltimore's John
Harbaugh, who was distracted late in his Sunday night victory. They're also
reviewing the embarrassing behavior of Washington offensive coordinator Kyle
Shanahan over the weekend. And right about now, I have only one question.

It's this: Where's the poise, coach?

Coaches spend a lot of time telling players to worry about what they can
control. They preach patience and discipline, and I've heard smart men in NFL
locker rooms say things such as, "Great teams overcome bad calls."
But what we've seen in the past month is a rapid disintegration of values and
patience and that culminated with Belichick's child-like behavior.

It might be true that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a stubborn man who
won't be pushed by public sentiment to make a deal that isn't favorable to the
league. It might be accurate that the locked out officials are asking for too
much. But what's less attractive and tolerable than any of it is watching the
so-called professionals melt down and blame their own shortcomings on the
replacements.

The league knows the quality of the games isn't better with replacement
officials on the field. But the games are even less interesting and watchable
with the coaches encouraging an uprising and trying to sway public sentiment
with their actions.

The Patriots didn't lose to the Ravens because of a bad call. They lost because
they didn't make enough plays. Same goes for most of what we're seeing (and
hearing complaints about) in the NFL.

Aside from a dramatic increase in
instant-replay use, which slows games down, the biggest nuisance has been the
incessant whining.
The league office should be concerned that the best officials remain out of
work. It should always strive to have the best players, best coaches and most
effective officials calling the games.

It's not good for the game to have a
work stoppage for what amounts to the second-most important facet of the games.
But what's far worse than some questionable calls and a sporadic pace is having
sub-par professionalism from the personalities on the field.

The coaches set the tone here. And what we're hearing from them belongs on a
schoolyard playground. I don't think it's coincidence that the teams being
fined, and the coaches doing the loudest complaining, are the ones who are
losing games.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said
it best on Monday night. He and his teammates had just been mugged in front of
national television audience, and a disappointed, upset, miffed Rodgers offered:
"We shouldn't have been in that position."

Monday night's misfire should get
the officials back to work.

Better yet, it should leave a chorus of whining coaches silent at last.